A Chess Media System for Fritz

10/16/2003 – The latest ChessBase Magazine 96, due out on Monday, contains a directory with updates of our main software programs: ChessBase, Fritz and Junior. One of these is very special this time. The Fritz 8 update introduces a whole new dimension to our activities on the Playchess.com server. Here are all the details...

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To install the update you must, of course, have a Fritz installed on your computer.
Start the program \updates\Fritz8\setup.exe (you can do this straight from the
CBM 96 CD) and allow the new version to replace the old one. The next time you
log into the server you may be prompted to upgrade this installation as well.
That is normal – and you should accept. The Playchess.com server will
always try to keep your Fritz or Fritz-compatible programs completely up-to-date.

With the new update installed you will not immediately notice any difference.
But there is a major enhancement hiding in the Window menu:

Clicking “Window – Panes – Chess Media System” (or
pressing Ctrl-Alt-V) will open a new window on your chessboard screen. This
is empty, and you can close it again by repeating the action.

The quickest way to see what this “Chess Media System” is all about
is to load the small trial lecture that is on the CBM CD. Start Fritz 8 in the
classical offline mode (use “Play chess” in the start dialog), and
then click “Open – Chess Media File” in the “File”
menu. Select the file “\Demo Chess Media System\Mig.wmv” from the
CD. This will open the media window and start playing a lecture.

The demo file on the CBM CD is a short recording we made in July in New York
with the chess journalist Mig Greengard. Mig was the second person to see our
new functions – the first was, as tradition requires, Garry Kasparov,
who played around with it a day earlier. As the Mig Greengard file is played
you can see the lecturer is moving pieces, drawing arrows and colouring squares
on the chessboard.

It should be mentioned that in order to see the video lecture you will need
to have the Microsoft Media Player 9.0. This is usually preinstalled on recent
Windows XP systems, but if your computer cannot play the files you can install
the player very easily, in just a few minutes, from the Microsoft web site.

The very first person to try out the Fritz Chess Media system was Garry
Kasparov, shown above doing a recording in New York in July this year. He could
hardly hide his delight at the new possibilities that become apparent to him.

How exactly does the ChessBase Media System work. It makes use of the Windows
Streaming Media format (the files have the ending .wmv and .wma) to capture
video and/or audio files on the fly – the lecturer simply plugs in a webcam
and a microphone and starts recording a session. Whatever is done on the chessboard
is recorded by Fritz and instructions are embedded in the multimedia stream.
When the file is replayed everything is faithfully repeated on the graphic chessboard.

Chess prodigy Taimur Radjabov experimenting with the system during the Super-GM
in Dortmund. The media file is recorded by a webcam on top of the notebook screen.
On the right Frederic Friedel, who hardly needs to explain anything to the computer-savvy
young man.

Lectures can be pre-recorded and supplied on CD, or they can be conducted live
on the Playchess.com server. There you can see and/or hear the broadcaster speak,
while the pieces move on the board. It is an ideal instrument for chess training,
interviews, chats, or live coverage of important events.

This is what the trial recording by Radjabov looks like, when you load and
replay it on the Playchess.com server.

Our Chess Media System works well on the Playchess.com server as well. There
is a special room, only visible to users who have installed the update. In it
you will find live and archived lectures, some of which in the future may require
payment (in the server currency of ducats).

Click on “Free Chess Media” in the “Chess Media Streaming”
room to load a few test files we have placed there. In the coming months there
will be much more content and possibly a new archive system with additional
rooms.

Note that you cannot start a multi-media broadcast yourself. This function
is reserved for qualified trainers and VIPs who can contact ChessBase if they
wish to provide multimedia content.

The main author of the Fritz Media System is Jeroen van den Belt, who is also
responsible for the ChessBase Online database.
This was launched in 1999 and currently contains 2.9 million games. Each week
about 5000 games are added to keep it completely up-to-date. The online database
is around 10 GB in size, most of which is taken up by a gigantic index that
allows instant access to about 50 million positions. The online database is
queried about 6000 times a day by visitors using the Java applet on the chesslive
page or directly from the ChessBase program. It is even possible to query the
database using the programs Pocket Fritz 1 and 2.

Three-times US women's champion Anjelina Belakovskaia records a session
from her home in New Jersey

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.